[guru of rock n roll]

It depends on the mood I am in. But I have a rough draft of a song before trying to polish it. I do this because I sometimes procrastinate in learning sometimes. I hate not playing a song all the way through. I might not play very song perfect but I try to play the whole thing. I cannot listen to someone playing Stairway to Heaven intro only then Smoke on the water or Iron Man right after that. It gets on my nerves bad. I used to do it when I was a teenager. But back to the original topic any where from 10 min to 1 week depending on the song and genre. Easy AC/DC hard Joe Satriani. If I have the Guitar Pro or power tab it doesn't take me long at all. What about you

This post has been edited by guru of rock n roll: 11 October 2007 - 04:09 AM

[kurtlives]

Ya it really depends.

Last night I learned a Chili Peppers song and it took me 1.5 to master. Tougher songs can take a month though. All depends on the song and my mood though.

I also got to agree but being annoyed with kids on playing catchy riffs and intros.

[guru of rock n roll]

is that a hour in a half?

[dadfad]

From first hearing it to reaching the "play it in front of others" level? It really depends. Sometimes fifteen minutes, sometimes a year or more. (I don't mean a solid year of an hour or two a day every day or something. More like several hours in a week or so, and then put it down for awhile, and then picked back up again. Some tunes are like that. Extremely difficult to truly master in one continuous period and seem better handled in... small doses. Where you can break off at one plateau for a bit, and then come back to it and start again where you left off.) I've spent over a month before just trying to figure out how a tune was done from the recording, not even counting the time to learn to play it.

[theprik]

well i have to learn the first 4 songs from our setlist for saturday afternoon.. and friday is my drinking night, i think i could be in a bit of trouble since its early friday morning.. their easy songs but i havent heard 3 of them and one is a 12 minute long friggin greenday song.. i curse pop culture

[kurtlives]

is that a hour in a half?

Ya but thinking back it was more like an hour.

[guru of rock n roll]

From first hearing it to reaching the "play it in front of others" level? It really depends. Sometimes fifteen minutes, sometimes a year or more. (I don't mean a solid year of an hour or two a day every day or something. More like several hours in a week or so, and then put it down for awhile, and then picked back up again. Some tunes are like that. Extremely difficult to truly master in one continuous period and seem better handled in... small doses. Where you can break off at one plateau for a bit, and then come back to it and start again where you left off.) I've spent over a month before just trying to figure out how a tune was done from the recording.

Finger picking style I struggle with but have improved. But it depends on genre . Finger picking is my worst technique

[jenniferdurst]

It really depends on genre and how much of the song I feel like getting into. Stuff like Green Day might take me an hour because the power chords are simple and the solos generally aren't too taxing. If it involves any type of strumming pattern that involves picking, then it takes me anywhere from a few days to....well...never.

[guru of rock n roll]

I am gonna agree with genre. Without a pick and playing fingerstyle would be a very long time. Maybe never....

[kurtlives]

I just started "In My Time Of Dying" by Zeppelin. This one should take me a while. It's 11 mins and it will be hard as I am not the best at slide.

I want to stick with this one and go through to the end

[guru of rock n roll]

Go for it. My favorite Zep song is The Rain Song and then Kashmir. I enjoyed learning both of them.

[frankyz84]

It all depends on the song(as said by others). I am not blessed with a good memory(thanks to years of substance abuse) so although i could nail a song in a couple of hours, i will have forgotten half of it the next day. It takes me weeks to learn solos, so i try to stick to learning shorter solos . Sometime i have a problem getting my head around the simplest of songs, and yet can master something more difficult in a day, a good example of that is, There She Goes, by the LA's, which took be nearly 2 weeks to nail, and yet, Over The Hills And Far Away By Led Zep, i nailed in a day(not including solo). I think it is also a mindset thing, where if i really want to learn a song it will be easier and quicker to learn, but if i am learning a song that i am not so keen on, then it will take longer. I am always having to relearn songs that i have learned in the past, which will often take me a day to learn again, because it`s always easier the second time around, but even then i will stop halfway through and think what the hell comes next(that sometimes happens with songs i play on a regular basis ). My memory has gotten is so bad, that i know i will never perform again, either with a band or solo(unless i have my song sheets with me). The only songs i find easy to both learn, and remember are any songs with fingerstyles. For some reason finger picking sticks with me, could be a muscle memory thing.

[sixgunsound]

depends, like everyone else has already said. i can pick up most songs within a a minute or two, but if it's a particularly complicated chord pattern i usually head to a chord site to just get the basics. most other things come together by themselves, solos all done by ear. i can probably do anything short of the stuff the metal crowd would be interested. i can do page, but nothing to perfection. i'd say i get 75% of the notes as i go along!

[muchoguitaro]

I just started "In My Time Of Dying" by Zeppelin. This one should take me a while. It's 11 mins and it will be hard as I am not the best at slide.

I want to stick with this one and go through to the end

that's a great song to learn for getting better at slide - the main body of the song actually isn't that hard to learn and repeats throughout the song, though the solos are improvised, and personally i've never been able to get them down.

[Nater11]

Why Georgia took me forever. And, until last week ive never had more than like 30 mins where i could sit down and learn it. I've got it nailed down pretty solid now, some tough changes in that one

[fenderguitarfreak]

For some reason I all of a sudden get into the mood to learn a specific song...I learn the intro or first verse and then I want to give up the song because it no longer interests me. Does anyone else run into this problem? It pretty much sucks.

[jenniferdurst]

*laugh* Yep, although I usually bookmark the tabs or print them just in case I change my mind later on.

[Siege of Troy]

Um, depends, like Jen said, punk rock takes less than an hour, but stuff like Iron Maiden (finally just working the last few rough spots out of the solo for The Trooper, been trying to play it for almost a year), Guns N Roses, Sonata Arctica, can take up to a year or more before I feel comfortable playing it for people....but I've only been playing a little over 3 years, so most of this stuff is probably child's play to a lot of you guys...